The trip description in the Scree and on the email broadcast
generated responses from several people. On the trail we were
four. I'd had very little luck convincing the other climbers (now
they believe me) to leave early and pack in to Lon Chaney's
cabin on Thursday evening, but I wasn't going to lose any sleep
over it so I left Fremont Thursday morning and got to the Big Pine
trailhead hiker parking lot after six that evening. Reserved permits
aren't required until June 29 this year so I filled out a self-issue
permit with the campground host, dropped the pack at the end
of the road, parked the car in the hiker parking lot and started
walking back up to the pack. The trail which starts up from the
end of the road is getting washed out and overgrown near the
streams. With this added bushwhacking it may be easier for the
North Fork to just start up the trail from the hiker parking lot.
Got to the cabin about eight and had a nice long restful night's
sleep there on the porch while the rest of the group was driving
the lonely highways 'til the wee hours of the morning and not
reaching the cabin until nine on Friday.

Friday was a beautiful crystal clear sunny typical Sierra day. Past the
cabin the snow soon covered the trail. We trudged for a few hours
trying to get our packs as high as possible for camp. Two of us
stopped ~11,800 at 2:30 and camped in the little tarn above Sam Mack
Meadow. The other two stopped an hour later at the meadow. The
post-holing was particularly noticeable on the slope leading from the
stream up to the meadow. We spent the next five hours melting snow,
cooking, and gassing up for the next day. There was no running water
after crossing the stream at ~10,500, and even there we were digging
down a few feet in the snow to find it.

Saturday was a grey overcast day with darker clouds that kept dropping
lower. The two of us that had camped higher crossed the bergschrund
and took turns kicking steps in the deep snow up to the U-notch. The
'schrund wasn't a big problem with enough snow to walk across. We
reached the notch about 10:00 and kept watching and waiting for the
weather to give us a sign. The peaks were socked-in, with clouds
blowing from the South through the notch. To the North we could see
several squalls below us. To the South we couldn't see anything most
of the time. After about an hour and a half we got snowed off just as
we were getting ready to go on belay. We'd thought we might at least
go up the chimney while waiting for the weather. The two pitches in
the chimney had looked passably clear of snow, etc. with some ice in
the first pitch. It continued snowing on and off as we went back to
camp where we found the other two waiting. Later in the afternoon
the sky cleared mostly with some clouds around the peaks and some
snow squalls passing through. At times we wished we had stayed at
the U-notch and given it a try, but we had left some good snow steps
for the next day. Around camp we decided to forego T-bolt and take
another run at North Pal on Sunday.

Sunday was mostly clear with a few clouds around the peaks. We got
back up to the U-notch about 8:00 where some students from UCSD
soon joined us. The wind was chilly and the sun felt great when the
clouds let it through. We climbed slowly up the two pitches clearing
snow and ice from some of the holds, making more work than
usual. We carried our ice axes and crampons along - wearing the
crampons for the first pitch. In the past I've left both at the
U-notch. By 1:00 four of us had climbed to the top of the 4th class
chimney. One of the UCSD hopefuls had joined up with us and we
went for the top. With the fresh snow everywhere we belayed much
of the way to the summit, which is usually a scramble. After a
traverse we dropped down ~80' on the South side of the ridge and
then back up to the summit boulders. We got baked through this
section with clouds now widely scattered and the wind quiet on the
South side. The register was buried in a couple of feet of snow and
eluded us despite a fair amount of poking around with an ice axe,
but we have pictures for those who require proof. We were back to
the top of the chimney by 5:30 where we used two 120' 8.5mm
ropes tied together for two rappels, back to the U-notch by 7:45.

Monday was clear and beautiful. We packed out to the cars by 11:00
and drove. Trip participants were Craig Clarence, Steve Shields,
Tony Cruz, Jeff from UCSD, and myself, Joe Stephens.